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PITTSBURGH & CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) today announced that the Company’s
Board of Directors has appointed Miguel Patricio as Chief Executive
Officer effective July 1, 2019. Mr. Patricio will succeed Bernardo Hees,
who will remain CEO through June 30, 2019, to ensure a seamless
transition.

“Miguel is a proven business leader with a distinguished track record of
building iconic consumer brands around the globe, driving top-line
revenue growth through a focus on consumer-first marketing, innovation,
and people development,” said Alex Behring, Chairman of Kraft Heinz’s
Board of Directors.

“I want to personally thank Bernardo Hees for leading the Company
through its first phase,” said Marcel Herrmann Telles, a member of Kraft
Heinz’s Board of Directors. “I’ve worked with Miguel over the course of
the past 20 years, and he is a natural business leader. From attracting
and nurturing the best talent to leading the turnaround of the AB InBev
China business into the phenomenal success it is today, Miguel has one
of the best brand-building minds in the industry.”

A native of Portugal, Mr. Patricio will join the Company after a
successful career spanning two decades at Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB
InBev), where he served as part of the Executive Leadership team in
various positions, driving organic growth and industry-leading margins.

At AB InBev, Mr. Patricio served as the Global Chief Marketing Officer
from 2012 to 2018. In this role, he helped develop and implement a
strategic playbook for global brands Corona, Budweiser and Stella
Artois, accelerating organic sales growth to high single digits. This
represented more than one-third of AB InBev’s organic growth and
accounted for more than 20 percent of AB InBev’s 2018 year-end global
revenues. In his final year as chief marketer, AB InBev was the most
awarded brand owner at Cannes Lions 2018, the global benchmark for
effective creative marketing communications.

Prior to that, he was AB InBev’s President of Asia Pacific from 2008 to
2012 and President of North America from 2006 to 2008, providing him
with deep experience in growing businesses in developed and emerging
markets.

As President of Asia Pacific, Mr. Patricio set the foundation for the
growth of the China business by defining a long-term strategy focusing
on the premium market, growing Budweiser to become the leading brand in
China, and expanding the growth of local brands such as Harbin. This led
to the transformation of AB InBev Asia Pacific, which grew from revenues
of $1 billion in 2008 to $2.7 billion in 2012, making it the number one
beer company in China. Asia Pacific now represents approximately 15
percent of the company’s global revenue and 18 percent of global volumes.

Prior to AB InBev, Mr. Patricio has worked at other consumer companies
including Philip Morris, The Coca-Cola Company and Johnson & Johnson in
Latin America, New Jersey, and Georgia.

“Kraft Heinz is an incredible company with iconic brands that are loved
around the world,” Mr. Patricio said. “It will be a privilege and an
honor to lead such a talented group of employees as we focus on the
consumer to capitalize on the growth opportunities that exist in the
rapidly evolving food industry.”

“I would like to thank Bernardo personally, and on behalf of the Board,
for his many contributions to Kraft Heinz over the last six years,” Mr.
Behring added. “He helped transform the food industry by leading the
acquisition of Heinz in 2013 and the merger of Kraft and Heinz in 2015.
Under Bernardo’s tenure, Kraft Heinz achieved industry-leading margins
and sales performance in line with its U.S. peers, developed an
organization with best-in-industry quality standards, and built in-house
capabilities for category management, including revenue and assortment
management. We appreciate his contributions.”

“It has been an honor to serve as CEO of Kraft Heinz and to see it
through its transformation over the last six years,” said Mr. Hees. “I
have confidence that Miguel and the team will take Kraft Heinz to new
heights.”

ABOUT THE KRAFT HEINZ COMPANY

For 150 years, we have produced some of the world’s most beloved
products at The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC). Our Vision is To
Be the Best Food Company, Growing a Better World. We are one of the
largest global food and beverage companies, with 2018 net sales of
approximately $26 billion. Our portfolio is a diverse mix of iconic and
emerging brands. As the guardians of these brands and the creators of
innovative new products, we are dedicated to the sustainable health of
our people and our planet. To learn more, visit http://www.kraftheinzcompany.com/ or
follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains a number of forward-looking statements.
Words such as “plan,” “invest,” “grow,” “support,” “work,” “aim,”
“accelerate,” “leverage,” “will,” “take,” “focus,” “capitalize,”
“confident,” and variations of such words and similar future or
conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not
limited to, statements regarding Kraft Heinz’s investments and growth
plans. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future
performance and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many
of which are difficult to predict and beyond Kraft Heinz’s control.

Important factors that may affect Kraft Heinz’s business and operations
and that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, operating in
a highly competitive industry; Kraft Heinz’s ability to predict,
identify, and interpret changes in consumer preferences and demand, to
offer new products to meet those changes, and to respond to competitive
innovation; changes in the retail landscape or the loss of key retail
customers; changes in relationships with significant customers or
suppliers; Kraft Heinz’s ability to maintain, extend, and expand its
reputation and brand image; Kraft Heinz’s ability to leverage its brand
value to compete against private label products; Kraft Heinz’s ability
to drive revenue growth in its key product categories, increase its
market share, or add products that are in faster-growing and more
profitable categories; product recalls or product liability claims;
unanticipated business disruptions; Kraft Heinz’s ability to identify,
complete, or realize the benefits from strategic acquisitions,
alliances, divestitures, joint ventures, or other investments; Kraft
Heinz’s ability to realize the anticipated benefits from prior or future
streamlining actions to reduce fixed costs, simplify or improve
processes, and improve its competitiveness; the execution of Kraft
Heinz’s international strategic initiatives; the impacts of Kraft
Heinz’s international operations; economic and political conditions in
the United States and in various other nations in which Kraft Heinz does
business; changes in Kraft Heinz’s management team or other key
personnel and Kraft Heinz’s ability to hire or retain key personnel or a
highly skilled and diverse global workforce; risks associated with
information technology and systems, including service interruptions,
misappropriation of data, or breaches of security; impacts of natural
events in the locations in which Kraft Heinz or its customers,
suppliers, distributors, or regulators operate; Kraft Heinz’s ownership
structure; Kraft Heinz’s indebtedness and ability to pay such
indebtedness; an impairment of the carrying value of goodwill or other
indefinite-lived intangible assets; exchange rate fluctuations;
volatility in commodity, energy, and other input costs; volatility in
the market value of all or a portion of the derivatives we use;
increased pension, labor and people-related expenses; compliance with
laws, regulations, and related interpretations and related legal claims
or other regulatory enforcement actions; Kraft Heinz’s ability to
protect intellectual property rights; tax law changes or
interpretations; the impact of future sales of Kraft Heinz’s common
stock in the public markets; Kraft Heinz’s ability to continue to pay a
regular dividend and the amounts of any such dividends; volatility of
capital markets and other macroeconomic factors; and other factors. For
additional information on these and other factors that could affect
Kraft Heinz’s forward-looking statements, see Kraft Heinz’s risk
factors, as they may be amended from time to time, set forth in its
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Kraft Heinz
disclaims and does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statement in this press release, except as required by
applicable law or regulation.